Scott Lively

Scott Lively is a prominent figure in the anti-gay movement and has assisted in founding organizations in the US and abroad dedicated to this cause. He is connected with multiple conservative Christian organizations in varying roles. Lively is president of Abiding Truth Ministries, which maintains the website Defend the Family, director of The Pro-Family Law Center and state director of the American Family Association of CA. The Pro Family Charitable Trust, which donates money to anti-gay organizations, is an offshoot of Lively’s Abiding Truth Ministries. Lively has also been involved as a cofounder and American envoy for the virulently anti-gay, Eastern European hate group Watchmen on the Walls.

In early 2009, along with other prominent activists in the anti-gay movement, such as Don Schmierer of Exodus International and Caleb Lee Brundidge of Extreme Prophetic Ministries, Lively presented at an anti-homosexuality conference in Uganda Given the already tense relations in the country over issues of homosexuality, the event helped to ignite outbursts of violence and discrimination against individuals accused of being gay. Lively currently resides in Springfield, MA which is also home to a branch of a Latvian anti-gay church run by Vadim Privedenyuk that attracts many of his followers.

Lively is available for speaking engagements concerning the topics he has written about: in the need for a “masculine Christianity” to counteract what he refers to as the “emasculation of the American church;” the dangers poised to the family by international treaties; and the common origins homosexuality allegedly shares with abortion and pornography.
Lively, along with Kevin Abrams is the author of The Pink Swastika, first published in 1996, which argued that homosexuals were a driving force behind the rise of the Nazi Party. The book has been promoted by such conservative groups as the Family Defense Council. The FDC's Dr. Howard Hurwitz called the book "a thoroughly researched, eminently readable, demolition of the 'gay' myth, symbolized by the pink triangle, that the Nazis were anti-homosexual." Lively’s later writings include The Poisoned Stream, which continues and expands upon the argument outlined in his previous work, as well as two guides for combating the so-called homosexual agenda entitled Defeating "Gay" Arguments With Simple Logic and Seven Steps To Recruit-Proof Your Child. Lively has also written for the Chalcedon Report, a journal published by the Chalcedon Foundation, the leading Christian Reconstructionist organization in the country. Christian Reconstructionism is the belief that countries should be run on Biblical Law.

In 2007, Lively addressed a letter to the people of Russia warning them of the threat that the homosexual agenda poses as well as steps they should take to defend themselves from its encroachment. One possible action Lively advised entailed criminalizing “the public advocacy of homosexuality,” a recommendation that has been included in the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009.

Lively has more insidious connections to Eastern Europe for his role in founding Watchmen on the Walls. The Southern Poverty Law Center states that “in Latvia, the Watchmen are popular among Christian fundamentalists and ethnic Russians, and are known for presiding over anti-gay rallies where gays and lesbians are pelted with bags of excrement. In the Western U.S., the Watchmen have a following among Russian-speaking evangelicals from the former Soviet Union. Members are increasingly active in several cities long known as gay-friendly enclaves, including Sacramento, Seattle and Portland.”

Lively credits the Russian translation of his book The Pink Swastika with helping gain notoriety for Pastor Alexey Ledyaev, the right-wing, anti-gay head of the New Generation Church. Ledyaev in turn borrows heavily from the ideas of R.J. Rushdoony, the late founding thinker of Christian Reconstruction. He also has ties with other more or less well known opponents of homosexuality such as televangelist Pat Robertson, the Rev. Ken Hutcherson and Sacramento-based Russian language radio host Vlad Kusakin. In 2007, Lively claimed to have been appointed as a special envoy by the Bush Administration to Latvia when he was there for a prominent anti-gay demonstration. However, this was refuted by a spokesperson for the White House.

Lively on homosexuality: “In reality, homosexuality is nothing more than same-gender conduct among people who are innately and unchangeably heterosexual. Homosexuality is thus biologically (and to varying degrees morally) equivalent to pedophilia, sado-masochism, bestiality and many other forms of deviant behavior.”